Fluttershy gave a fake smile to Colgate as she hugged Rarity and her. She kept processing what Colgate had said about everything. One thing kept coming up in her head. After Colgate let go Fluttershy turned to Rarity and gestured to come close "Rarity something's bothering me it was what Johnny had told me back when it was just us after killing some zombies. He said Fluttershy its like a type of super rabies. The best thing to do for them is to put them out of their misery and end their suffering." Fluttershy said. "I don't know if there's anything to that but if I'm uncertain. Then I'm sure Colgate will have at least ten times more of a hard time trusting anyone" * ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3R8tkvlAlk ) "HOLD IT" Johnny bellowed stepping into the kitchen "what you said doesn't add up D. You say they are trained to fight monsters but what happens if and when survivors come into play. I don't think you who has such a detailed class system not consider that sentient people and ponies may choose to take for themselves and attack a gated community such as yours claiming supplies as their own." Johnny walks over to Mac who is coughing up a storm and hands him a glass of water from the table. He turns back to D, points at him and says "what happens when that young man who lost his father kills another man who's trying to feed his son, wife, and daughter"

Travis enjoyed the food that the ponies had made. Afterwords he decieded to leave the kitchen. as he passed Cameron he said "i'm heading outside if you'd like to join me" he walked out to the living room looking outside with his binoculars. He left the cabin looking for the plant. If he found it he could prepare it in the shed out back. * Applejack disliked all the yelling and argueing in the kitchen left to join Flutters and Rarity upstairs. All the ponies seemed startled upon AJ entering. They gave her the gist of Colgate's story. "So" AJ asked "what is it that Colgaye needed to do?"

"ack" D looked as if Johnny had punched him in the gut back quickly recovers "my group's ways do work on sapeint raiders but as always diplomacy and trading is attempted first, but I think we're getting to far into a ethnics debate here." he said wishing to stop debating with everyone he talks with.

"as long as Scoots is safe and Happy as can be in this... I'm good" RD said resalutly with D nodding right after

"Right, my bad" Johnny said rubbing the back of his head and giving an apologetic smile. "I guess the heat of the debate got to me. Anyways" turning to the new arrivals "welcome back twilight, and Salim was it? Pleased to meet ya" Johnny said to them. He went and sat down in a chair and unwittingly grabbed a muffin biting into it. The taste came in waves as he chewed "Delicious... compliments to the chef" he finally said holding back his gag reflex. Derpy smiled and nodded as sympathetic looks were given to him by previous victims.

Mac's coughing subsided as he patted Johnny on the arm. "Thanks man." His voice was calmer, but he still stared at D with a baleful look. "Fine, we can drop this, but I think I will be reconsidering treading with your people. We should be fine as we are." He pushed himself back from the table and hobbled out of the room.

Before leaving he paused. "Oh and to that hypothetical? I would tell the kid to not get himself killed and train the mother. Last thing the world needs now is to regress back to the 1950's "man of the house" BS." Having said his peace, Mac hobbled out into the main room.

Seeing Travis walking out the door he watched in bemusement as the other man wondered out into the woods. "What on earth is he doing?" Mac shock his head and slumped into a chair. "Gah, I need to keep my temper under control. Now I have a dame head ache and a sore throat on top of everything else." He groaned. "What a day."

* * *

Colgate sighed. "I was trying to find a cure. It didn't really work out all that well, but if they still have ponies working in that lab, who knows what progress might have been made!" She looked at the three mares and added slightly more forcefully, "I don't know how much of this that company knew about, but if we can even just get a Vaccine we could save Equestria! Heck, maybe even find a way to close the tears!"

Following Dr. Gibson's invitation, Salim sat down at the table. He watched as Twilight reunited with the rest of the group and wondered whether he should ask for food or just fall asleep. Before he could make up his mind, a heated argument began. So much for sleeping... While the discussion was going on, he had a closer look at the others. Quite an interesting group of people. I wonder who's the one who called us here? The Doctor? Maybe... or maybe he's just a doctor of geology or something. He looked at D. This guy said something about an outpost... so he came across another settlement, too. Probably stayed their for a while, became one of them. Outpost. Sounds very paramilitary-ish. Especially with all the talk about unit types and training people to fight.

"You're still training the kids to fight for you." Mac snapped, eyes narrowing.

Anti-military? At least against involving children in battle. Likeable guy. Could be a veteran; who knows. Greeted me like the place is his, didn't he? Well, maybe it is...

"[...]And your talking about setting up a permanent, self stained community in New England? How many of you know how to farm this far north? What about how much arable land you will need to feed so many people?[...]"

A local, huh? Oh, now he's coughing his lungs up. Possible illness?

D remained calm through Mac's triade, then started laughing darkly. "Well, quite the detective we have here! But tell me, what makes you think we're training them to fight monsters, why not other survivors?" he said in a hamed up villian voice, then quickly dispelled the tension in the air with a normal hardy laugh. "You should have seen your faces, [...]"

Joking, eh? Were you just trying too end an argument that might have escalated otherwise? Or is there some kind of respect towards that guy who's coughing so much?

"Hold it!" Johnny bellowed, stepping into the kitchen.

And another one enters the scene. Well, 18 individuals in total, that's quite a few. Coming to think of it, Twilight even gave me their names: Mac, he send the mail; Johnny; Brandon; Gibson - the doctor, right; Travis; Cameron; D. While he was reciting the information Twilight had given him, he noticed that Johnny handed Mac a glass of water. So you guys do respect him. He owns the place. Is he Mac? The argument came to an end.

"Fine, we can drop this, but I think I will be reconsidering trading with your people. We should be fine as we are." Mac pushed himself back from the table and hobbled out of the room.

Having the last word, huh? You're a bit stubborn. And apparently, you get to decide as well. You're definitely Mac. So you should know about the cure.

Salim hesitated for a few seconds, then he got up and followed Mac out of the kitchen and into the main room where he found him sitting in a chair. As he approached him, Mac looked up. "So... Mac, right? The author of that chain email? First of all, I'm thankful for the hospitality and I'll gladly stay a night or two, but... before I decide to help you guys, could you tell me a bit more about that cure?"

Dr. G had mostly avoided giving opinions although he was very much against children fighting a war for adults. Dinner having been disrupted Dr. G followed mac to make sure he was ok. Before leaving he turned to Twilight.

"Rarity and Fluttershy will be happy to see you are well they are upstairs with Colgate." He said to her as he went into the sitting area .

"So... Mac, right? The author of that chain email? First of all, I'm thankful for the hospitality and I'll gladly stay a night or two, but... before I decide to help you guys, could you tell me a bit more about that cure?"Salim asked.

"I don't mean to but in but you should probably take another Motrin Mac." Dr. G said handing him over a pill and some water. "Also try not to get so worked up until that head wound clears. It might make you dizzy." Dr. G continued taking a seat. He then turned back to Salim. "Sorry about interrupting like that just trying to keep everyone relatively healthy." Dr. G said smiling at Salim kindly.

*"Rarity something's bothering me it was what Johnny had told me back when it was just us after killing some zombies. He said Fluttershy its like a type of super rabies. The best thing to do for them is to put them out of their misery and end their suffering." Fluttershy said. "I don't know if there's anything to that but if I'm uncertain. Then I'm sure Colgate will have at least ten times more of a hard time trusting anyone"Fluttershy whispered.

"I guess Fluttershy but something is odd alsmost like she hates humans." Rarity whispered back."Colgate dear, I'm not sure the tears will ever be repaired but perhaps your opinion of humans is a little rash I mean I think Mac really cares about you. I'm just not so sure you should tell him that you lied about the cure. At least till you feel more comfortable with him." Rarity said she then sighed and added. "You do have to stop believing the worst of these humans though why don't you get to know them Gibe them a chance before deciding that they don't deserve saving." Rarity said as she sat down. Colgate looked at Rarity's flank.

"I just noticed your flank! Right above your cutie mark there's a scar! I thought you said he didn't leave a scar!"Colgate said.

"It's not that I never noticed. His act was so selfless that I can't fault him for a scar that if he hadn't made it would have been my end. It serves fr me a reminder of his generosity." Rarity said smiling softly. Fluttershy Beamed and Apple Jack looked surprised at Rarity's words.

*Ya the idea came to me when you mentioned The Doctor trying to go in and stop everything from happening in the first place. Colgate's escape was possibly a direct or indirect outcome from that attempt. As for the details, I lave thous to you since as far as I am concerned, till someone claims the Doctor or he shows up physically, his stories if Derpy's.

Oh and Smaloki, I liked your character reads. Gave me an idea for Mac in fact. : )*

Mac nodded. "Your welcome." He leaned forward and shook Salim's hand. "Sorry you had to come in on that. Not our finest moment." He chuckled sheepishly and ran a hand though his hair. "Things have been sorta crazy today, but that's no good excuse. Anyway, you wanted to know about the cure?" He pointed a finger up towered the ceiling. "Upstairs we have a pony who told me she knows about the location of a cure to all of this!"

He grind and despite the mans obviously tiredness, Salim saw Mac's eyes shine with tarnished optimism. "Even as the bodies piled up and everyone seemed to go crazy, I knew that there just had to be some sorta way to fix everything, to get it all back to how it was." He coughed, but it was a smaller one and far less ragged sounding then the prior fit. "When I found her she was in bad shape. I was almost afraid to try and help her, since who knew if she might just turn and bite me, right? But then I remembered something I heard... somewhere, I can't remember where, but it was just this line about making the world better one act of kindness at a time." His face feel slightly as his focus seemed to drift. "These days everyone seems so dame quick to start fighting and killing over every little thing. Thinking about that, about all that bad, just made me want to do something right, you know?"

Mac blinked several times and looked back at Salim, checks flushing. "Sorry, I have a problem with rambling. Anyway, I decided to help her and the risk be damned! And when I picked her up, before she passed out she told me she knew about a cure! I mean, talk about good karma, right?" He leaned back in his chair, once aging grinning. "So I sent out the emails, saw who might be willing to help and got lucky again. Doc patched up Colgate, the pony with the cure and now she is just resting upstairs. Once she is feeling better, we all pack up and follow her to this cure!"

By the time Mac had finished his rambling explanation, he seemed to have transformed into a different man then the one that had stormed (limped) from the kitchen. The reassertion of his optimistic plan seemed to have raised the injured mans spirits to the point where he looked as if he was ready to jump from his chair and hit the road at a moments notice. The effect might have even been inspiring, if not for the large wade of gauze wrapped tightly around his head, a grim reminder that confidence and positivity made for poor shields against some of the things that lurked outside the cabins walls.

As if realizing this last, Mac's face grew slightly redder and added, "I am a bit out of it though, so maybe take everything I say with a bit of salt till this mends a bit." He pointed to the head wound. "Speaking of which..." He took the pill and glass from Doctor G. "Sorry Doc, got a bit carried away there, didn't mean to ignore you." He swallowed the pill and chased it down with the water.

Colgate looked troubled, but nodded. "I see." She stared for a few seconds longer before realizing where she was letting her eyes linger and quickly looked back at the others faces with a faint blush. She faked a cough to hid her embarrassment and quickly jumped back to a prior point.

"Look, its not like I don't think they deserve saving." She looked at the book she had been reading for a moment then slid it off the end table and let it fall the the ground with a faint thump. "They have suffered pretty badly in all of this and I hate seeing that." She frowned at where the book had been and in a slightly lower voice added, "I'm not a monster. I don't want to see anypony die. Or any human for that matter." He voice dropped aging to almost a whisper as she finished, "Not that they would do the same for us."

She turned back to the others, her voice returning to a normal volume. "I want to find that cure or at the very least get the medicine out there that can save BOTH our worlds, but if my employers where working with humans to cause all of this, then they must have had a hand in creating the tears as well. And if that's the case, then they have to have a way to close them again."

Colgate sighed. "I don't want to just close everything down so the humans can't get the cure if we find it. I don't want them to die, but I think the best thing for both our worlds would be for them to separate aging." She looked earnestly at the other mares. "Its not that I am not grateful for what these humans have done for me or for the rest of you and maybe its our faults as much as theirs, but I have screen what it looks like when ponies and humans 'work together' on something and its not pretty or pleasant."

"You know, if it's all the same to you, Derpy and I are going to retire to the livingroom." said Brandon getting up from the table and heads toward the livingroom. Derpy follows him.

"Here, You can have the couch." Brandon told Derpy.

"You sure?"asked Derpy.

"Yeah,I'll just sleep in the recliner." Said Brandon removing his coat. He sat in the recliner and draped his coat over his legs. Derpy climbed on to the couch and pulled out her hour glass-shaped pendant stared at it.

"So what's with you and that penndant anyways?" asked Brandon

"I told you. Time Turner gave it to me."Said Derpy a little annoyed.

"There's gotta be more to it than that." Probed Brandon. "I mean a stallion doesn't just give a mare a jewlery for no reason."

"For your information,"said Derpy. "he gave it to me as a gift for being such great companion. There were absolutly no romantic implications. I don't think he ever thinks about romantic stuff at all."Derpy muttered the last part sadly.

"Oh,"said Derpy"Time Turner made it himself. He said the crystal in the center was a rare yellow crystal from Metebelis III."Derpy scratched her head."To be Honest, I have no Idea where that is."(Metebelis III is a planet in the Doctor Who universe famous for its crystals with strange properties.)

There was a bit of silence before Derpy spoke again."You were just pretending to like my muffins, were you?"

"Was I really that obvious?" asked Brandon sheepishly.

"This cabin is less wooden than your acting."said Derpy

"The muffins weren't that bad." said Brandon "They were just ... different."

"It's ok."said Derpy sleepily."I'm not upset about it. I was just experimenting with something new to see how they'd turn out."

"Well, we'd better get some sleep. Lots to do tomorrow." said Brandon. But Derpy was already asleep.

*Duhad I've got some ideas for how Time Turner is involved with colgate's story and I've a way to convey this part of the story while keeping him physically out of the story until someone chooses him. *

Cameron watched Travis leave the cabin as he quickly scoffed the remnants of the muffin as quickly as he could. He stood up and reached for his bag as Johnny took a seat and grabbed a muffin, Cameron glared at him angrily and quickly decided to stuff the muffins in his bag so no one else would steal them. He wanted to catch up to Travis quickly so he rushed into the kitchen to get a glass of water to wash the muffin down and listened to the argument as he drank, by the time he had finished everyone had gone there separate ways but Cameron decided to call out anyway as he rushed around looking for Derpy "Hitler trained children!" and then called out "But they will need the skills to survive in this world!" he didn't know if anyone listened but he didn't care.

"You were just pretending to like my muffins, were you?"

"Was I really that obvious?" asked Brandon sheepishly.Cameron watched from the doorway, appalled at what he was hearing.

"This cabin is less wooden than your acting." said Derpy

"The muffins weren't that bad." said Brandon "They were just ... different."

"It's ok." said Derpy sleepily. "I'm not upset about it. I was just experimenting with something new to see how they'd turn out."

*I'm just going to add this into what you said, retcon it if you like*

"You..." he said walking in pointing at Brandon "how dare you insult the muffins!" Cameron threw the muffin he had in his hands at Brandon's head. Sadly for Cameron he completely missed hitting the wall a meter to the left of Brandon. By the time Brandon and Derpy turned to face Cameron again... he was gone.

"Uhh, well, we'd better get some sleep. Lots to do tomorrow." said Brandon. But Derpy was already asleep.

*

Cameron ran out of the cabin as quickly as he could to catch up to Travis, as soon as he spotted him he stopped and took a puff from his inhaler then jogged up to Travis.

*Smaloki - I know they write so much so fast! I have three theories so far

1- They are lunatics who sit at their computers all day staring at this webpage 2- They are all living in a dimension where time has no meaning, thus they have an infinite amount of time to post 3- They are computer AI's programmed to RP Duhad has confirmed the second one in his case*

"You..." he said walking in pointing at Brandon "how dare you insult the muffins!" Cameron threw the muffin he had in his hands at Brandon's head. Sadly for Cameron he completely missed hitting the wall a meter to the left of Brandon. By the time Brandon and Derpy turned to face Cameron again... he was gone.

Brandon watched the muffin bounced off the wall and rolled to his feet. (Something ain't right about that boy) thought Brandon as he leaned back in the recliner and closed his eyes.

Mac watched the one sided food fight then gave Doc and Salim a 'What can you do?' shrug. "I guess we could all use a bit of shut eye." He muttered. "There is a small guest room on the second floor, but I think the ponies should get the main room for tonight. I think Colgate will be more comfortable with just her friends for now." He yawned and shifted to a more comfortable position on the couch. "You guys can work out who gets the rest of the beds and everyone else can get some pillows and blankets from the guest room. Floors not to hard with a little padding." his words drifted off into mumble as Mac's eyes closed.

*If both your characters are asleep, but not everyone has dozed off yet, feel free to describe dreams, back story bits and things like that till enough people have fallen asleep to/said what they will be doing for the night for me to move the clock ahead to the morning.*

*Nice going Duhad you sly dog you!"There is something really wrong with that guy! But I'm in no mood to go fixing drug or otherwise self induced stupidity." Dr. G commented out loud. "I guess I'll get some pillows and blankets since Rarity will probably want to be with Colgate." Dr. G said disappearing for a moment. He returned with enough pillows and blankets for himself and Salim. " Here help yourself." He said as he made a nest on the floor at the foot at the Couch. "So what brought you out here just a search for the cure nothing else?" Dr. G asked Salim as he got ready for Bed.

*Rarity didn't miss a beat of where Colgate was looking and she blushed a little herself at the attention. When Colgate coughed Rarity held in a quiet laugh and decided to pretended she didn't notice the abrupt change in topic. "I and I'm sure Fluttershy and Applejack will agree have a different opinion about them and I urge you to consider the ones that here in this cabin not the ones you dealt with when forming your opinion of them." Rarity said to Colagte who nodded in acknowledgement.